Mead and Honey Wines

A Comprehensive Guide By Michael Badger, MBE

Mead is believed to be the oldest known alcoholic beverage” and that “The earliest archaeological evidence of honey wine comes from 9000 BC in northern China.” Whilst researching my previous work on heather honey, Professor William (Bill) Sutherland reinforced a view extolled by the late Dr Oliver Rackham (former research fellow at the Botany Department, Cambridge) that man’s liking for a honey-based beverage may so easily have arisen through early mankind (as a hunter-gatherer) finding discarded honeycomb from marauding bears lying on saucer-type leaves on the jungle floor. Regular rainfall combined with the naturally high temperature turned the vestiges of honey into a fermented liquid that he readily imbibed: the liquid to his liking was probably sought. Such a theory, albeit not legend, can be taken uncritically as more than feasible. The increased interest in honeybees by the general public has seen a renaissance in Mead and Honey Wine production. The book is a manual of all aspects of mead making from the ingredients used; methods and practices; mead and honey wine production problems; bottling and cellar craft; requirements for producing meads and honey wines; recipes for meads, honey wines and honey based vinegar; kegging systems; floral and honey varietals; exhibition and judging of mead and honey wines; historical with various appendices.